Society spends millions of dollars in the vain pursuit of eternal youth. Botox and wrinkle filler injections, creams and cosmetics, and plastic surgery are the rage. As the years pass, why do we seem to fear and battle the inevitable? According to Joan Chittister, a well-known spiritual writer, we have not come to value the gifts that only growing older can give.

Chittister puts things into perspective in her new book, The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully (Bluebridge, Hardcover, $19.95). Her gentle and wise prose presents the many great things we gain as we grow older. She writes, “The problem is that preparation for aging in our modern world seems to be concentrated almost entirely on buying anti-wrinkle creams and joining a health club – when the truth is that what must be transformed now is not so much the way we look to other people, as it is the way we look at life.”

Joan Chittister has been a nun for more than 50 years, and is author of over 35 books, a weekly columnist for National Catholic Reporter, the founder and current executive director of Benetvision: a Resource and Research Center for Contemporary Spirituality, and co-chair of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, a UN-sponsored organization of women faith leaders, working for peace. She is currently a member of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pennsylvania, where she has served as prioress of the community for 12 years. She is a sought after speaker as well, and has a following across the country.

The Gift of Years is available at local booksellers and online at http://bluebridgebooks.com/

Claire Yezbak Fadden is the Associate Editor of LifeAfter50.com.